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Last night, Kevin Harlan – a known subscriber to The Bounce, which makes him an official bouncer – mentioned me during the NBA broadcast on Prime and praised the great work. Athletics made with our front-office rankings. Is it unbearable for me to point this out? Probably! But he’s my favorite announcer of all time, so I keep going.
To Vegas
Thunder and Spurs reach NBA Cup semifinals
Tuesday night we welcomed the Eastern Conference winners to Las Vegas in their quest for the NBA Cup and specifically the $500,000 prize for each player on the winning team. Last night, two Western Conference teams punched their tickets. The semi-finals will pit the Knicks against the Magic and the Thunder against the Spurs on Saturday night. Let’s see what happened.
Spurs 132, Lakers 119: There were several moments in the game where it looked like the Lakers might try to take control. Like the ridiculous sequence at the end of the first half, galvanized by a LeBron James dunk on Luke Kornet which excited the crowd. Or Marcus Smart leading a barrage of 3-pointers in the fourth quarter.
But a Kornet block here, a Stephon Castle or a De’Aaron Fox bucket there, and those runs were suppressed by the Spurs. Even though the Lakers have big stars and veteran experience, San Antonio’s young team has shown resilience, composure and an understanding of how to put that aside.
The Lakers will not win their second NBA Cup in three years. They had an opportunity to start accumulating these things, but the Spurs weren’t having it. This is the ideal opportunity for a good, young team seeks to establish itself in the vaunted West. Break up the Thunder party in Vegas and announce your presence with authority. However, the problem of beating the Thunder stands in the way.
Thunder 138, Suns 89: I don’t know if the Thunder’s point differential still matters once the NBA Cup reaches its playoff games. But they certainly seemed to treat the Suns like it still mattered. They led by as many as 53 points in this one, which shows how brutal OKC chooses to be. I remind you that the last time these two teams played to determine who would win the group, it was a close fight.
Of course, the Suns had Devin Booker for that one, and they didn’t do it last night. No disrespect, but his absence should in no way cause the final score to go from four points to 49 in the space of a week or so.
This Thunder team represents the tradition and fear of “the machines are going to take over the world.” This sounds like what Sarah Connor warned people about in “Terminator 2: Judgment Day.”
Everything they do is mechanical and yet fluid. They are not moved by the moment. They are simply programmed to deconstruct everything in front of them. Last night it was the Suns, and now OKC continues its mission. The Thunder lost the NBA Cup championship game to the Bucks last year. It was one of the few vulnerabilities we saw in them all season.
This season? They lost a game, and it’s like ten years ago. They’ve won 16 in a row and tied the 2015-16 Warriors for the best start to a season (24-1) en route to Vegas. Will they really benefit from it? Are they enjoying all of this? Aren’t they bored of their own domination? How to enter the minds of sentient machines?
We’ll have a full preview of Saturday’s Vegas semifinal matches in tomorrow’s Bounce.
The last 24
The Mavs lose a big man for the year. Not this one
🏀 End of season. Dallas has had a disastrous season. Now Derek Lively II is done after foot surgery.
🏆 Cup fever? What do players and coaches think of the NBA Cup in year three? We asked them, and their reactions were mixed.
☘️ What choice? Joe Mazzulla has a pretty simple answer about Jayson Tatum’s return: “It all depends on him.»
🪣 Always improving. Jalen Brunson has been a scoring star in New York. And now it’s even better.
👀 Is he back? Steph Curry is set to return to the court. He’s training again.
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